It would be nice to think that North Korea has listened to world opinion and put off the launch, but such an idea has probably realistically crossed no-one's mind in any country. "North Korea does not listen to the rest of the world and does whatever it likes" ...is the image they have carefully fostered over the years. Like the naughty kid in the classroom that gives everyone a headache. They have given us no reason to suppose this really is a rocket and not an ICBM test.

I think you are right, they will wait till the world looses interest, then the rocket will be swallowed into the earth by a giant trap door, and NK will state that they successfully launched at such blinding speeds that the inferior capitalist technology couldn't even track the rocket.

South Korea is about to have a presidential election. I wonder now this is impacting that. (Hawks vs. Doves.) Unlike Japan, they are technically at war with the North.

The TBS news this morning said that nothing is being reported about this within North Korea. IF if fails, nothing will be announced. If it goes well, it'll be all over the place as evidence of the prowess of their new dear leaderling. I'd imagine that they'll make a go of it a day or two in advance of the anniversary of KimJongIl's death, with some consideration for the weather. It will definitely need to happen by that anniversary or there isn't much point.

At any rate, Japan is certainly not the only country preparing to shoot down a stray missle or debris.

Because of the military alliance and the concerns over the possible launch, the US has sent 2 of it's 3 (First time for this too) Cobra Ball specially fitted airplanes that can detect missile launches like this, to Kadena and they are flying 24 hour coverage.

You know it's nice to see the anti-us military in Japan folks quiet here for once.

Well, the south has failed constantly & repeatedly in recent years to put a satellite in space - what makes you think the north will be better at what the south will do? They would be close to half a century (well, maybe 20-30 years) behind in tech.

why would north Korea be worried about foreign allies of japan. As long as they get China they are good. America would more than likely not want to get into a war with China. They hold to much of their economy. South Korea and Japan wouldn't be able to match China and North Korea's power as they are right now.

Whatever is motivating NK to attempt this launch I very much doubt that they care about what the rest of the world thinks. China has probably given them the "go-ahead" in private while saying the opposite in public. As long as China supports what NK does then NK can get away with it.

BTW, if you look at where Iran got a lot of it's missile tech from it's Pakistan, courtesy of China. China is one of the worst proliforators of nuke tech the world over. I guess they figure that as long as the rest of the world is worried about other things - like NK - they can push the neighbors around.

The missile starts a lot closer to China than Japan! If it makes it anywhere near mainland Japan it would have to cross South Korea first. If it goes straight south, towards Okinawa and Taiwan, it stays pretty damn close to China.

Best outcome would be a bad trajectory and China needing to shoot it down over open water before it landed on them. Of course, then nationalists and militarists could claim it had actually been planned that way and was a Chinese anti-missile defense test.